1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications and, in particular, to a method for transferring an in-progress telephone call between wireless and wired telephones operating in proximity to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Low-priced, state-of-the art cellular telephones are now widely available in the consumer marketplace. Indeed, many individuals now use cellular communications for much of their business as well as personal use. Nevertheless, those who use cellular telephones often find themselves cut off or dropped in the middle of a wireless call for any number of reasons, such as battery loss, network connection problems, or the like. Even when the connection between the cellular telephone and the wireless network remains intact, the link quality may be very poor, for example, as the user moves between cells. For these and other reasons, there has developed a need in the art to provide technology for transferring an in-progress telephone call between wireless and wired telephones.
An attempt to address this need in the art is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,233 to Jensen et al. This patent describes a wireless network controller that supports telephone call transfers between a wireless telephone and wired telephone. In this patent, first and second wired communication channels are connected to a telecommunications switch and the wired telephone, respectively. A third wired communication channel is coupled to an RF base station that supports a plurality of concurrent wireless communication channels. An interface circuit coupled to the first, second and third channels switches the connection of the first channel associated with the telecommunications switch between the second and third channels, and thus between the wired and wireless telephones.
Although the technique described in the Jensen et al. patent provides for in-progress call transfer between wireless and wired telephone devices, it requires a complex control circuit and dedicated communication channels. This technique further requires that the wired telephone be in physical range of the cellular base station.
There remains a need in the art to develop improved and more efficient techniques for in-progress call transfer between wireless and wired telephone devices. This invention addresses this need.